Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, etc.
Through popularity and imitation Gangnam Style videos, created by PSY the South Korean Internet sensation, became a viral phenomena. In much the same way, many current UX patterns have gained popularity through sharing and imitation. Do you understand what are the psychological foundations of social sharing and how do things “go viral”? Mass copying and imitation of some patterns can lead to the belief in a “Best Practice” even when the pattern is proved faulty. What are the trends that we have had to fight against, and what trends do we want take off like a cheesy horse dance.
We once thought that filing many bugs would get the attention of the development manager, and that they would have no choice but to address our concerns about the interface quality-or lack thereof.
We did learn that in order to get anything fixed, you do have to have it filed as a bug (or enhancement) in a bug tracking system and that the bug has to be clearly understandable, and be actionable.
Here are some of the elements that we have found make a good bug:
Scan any job-posting site to see what a mess the Usability and User Experience (UX) world has got itself into. Job titles such as User experience researcher, user researcher, user experience designer, usability specialist, human factors expert, interaction designer, information architect, user experience expert, user experience architect, user interface designer create an alphabet soup that make it difficult for recruiters to know which candidates are right for which positions.
For some US companies or agencies internationalization of their User Interface may just seem like a lot of unnecessary extra work.
They may believe that because they have no current plans to expand beyond the United States they have no reason to internationalize their web-based application.
It was a pleasure to work with you, as you and your team made this process a more pleasant experience for our team and the participants.
Karen Perry
I just want to tell you that I value people relations more than money. I remember how you were friendly and helpful not going against policies and contractual obligations at the same time, not using your power to make us feel stupid and small. It was a very rare and big experience for me. Really. I will always remember this.
Alex
The Usability People are all individuals that you can become friends with very easily. They have a lot of different interests and are a pleasure to work with. I was writing a PRD/MRD for a billing solution and worked with The Usability People in defining the user interface. They are receptive to ideas and are able to mold the user interface from an end-user's perspective. I really liked the idea of putting end-user photograph & short biography around the office to help understand the users
